New Chapters Written in Saga of Conn. Desegregation Case

While Hartford public schools student Milo Sheff spent last week
getting ready for his senior prom, Connecticut lawmakers were crafting
their answer to the school desegregation case that bears his name.

In the final hours of its 1997 session June 4, the legislature
approved perhaps the most significant portion of its response to last
year's state supreme court ruling in Sheff v. O'Neill.
The high court declared that the extreme racial and ethnic isolation in
and around the Hartford city schools denied students their
constitutionally guaranteed rights to an education.

The Sheff ruling came as some legal experts were forecasting
the twilight of sweeping civil rights litigation.

Last week's legislative package passed just two weeks shy of
graduation day for the 18-year-old Mr. Sheff, who helped launch the
suit in 1989. And early reaction from the plaintiffs' lawyers suggests
the case he's been a part of since the 4th grade might not yet be
over.

With a cost estimated at some $90 million over two years, the
legislative remedy would expand opportunities for students to transfer
between public school districts throughout Connecticut. The measure,
which Republican Gov. John G. Rowland last week pledged to sign, also
calls for enhancing the state's urban systems with magnet programs and
charter schools.

Some observers hailed the plan last week as a significant first
step. Others called it weak, but workable. The Sheff litigants
said it fell far short of solving underlying equity problems.

"I will be recommending to the plaintiffs that they begin to prepare
to return to court," said plaintiffs' lawyer John C. Brittain, also a
professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law in
Hartford.

Doing so, Mr. Brittain predicted, could prolong the legal battle
another two years, by which point the case will have occupied half of
Milo Sheff's life.

After years in the spotlight, the young Mr. Sheff now lets his
mother field the media's queries, she said, especially as he prepares
for graduation from the Hartford district's Adult Education
Program.

"Right now he wants to be just plain Milo," she said.

A Landmark Case

In April 1989, Mr. Sheff and his parents joined 16 other families in
arguing that they were denied educational opportunities guaranteed by
the state constitution. Although Mr. Sheff is black, his fellow
plaintiffs include white and Hispanic students from urban and suburban
families in the greater Hartford area.

About 95 percent of the students in the 24,000-pupil Hartford
district are members of minority groups; most are Hispanic. The
district has consistently ranked as one of the worst in the state in
student performance.

But in April 1995, a state superior court judge ruled against the
Sheff plaintiffs, arguing that the state had not contributed to
segregation, but rather had attempted to reduce it.

Since the supreme court decision, consensus built in the legislature
that any remedy should include greater opportunities for minority
students to transfer out of the Hartford schools, along with incentives
for suburban students to move into the district. ("Desegregation Panel Offers 15 Proposals to
Conn. Legislators," Jan. 29, 1997.)

The bill that finally met approval last week includes parts of both
elements.

Specifically, the plan offers grants of up to $50,000 to design--and
$100,000 to administer--new interdistrict transfer programs.

The programs would allow up to 1,000 students to move in or out of
the Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven districts in the 1998-99 school
year.

Although the lawsuit dealt with Hartford, the proposed remedies have
also focused on the two other urban districts, which share similar
concerns. The school choice program would then expand to the entire
state the year after.

As an incentive to accept transfers, some funds would follow
students.

Lawmakers voted to give receiving districts up to $2,000 for each
out-of-district student they accept, plus up to another $1,000 to cover
transportation costs.

Passed hours before the legislature finished debating the state's
general budget, the public-school-choice legislation included few
overall cost estimates, instead calling for new programs and expansions
"within available appropriations."

The legislation also pledges state aid for the Bridgeport, Hartford,
and New Haven systems to establish "lighthouse schools" with
specialized curricula designed to attract students from more than one
district.

"Within three years from now, we'll have a full-fledged, statewide
interdistrict program," said Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey, the Democrat who
chairs the joint education committee.

Mr. Gaffey said the overall remedy includes two separately passed
bills aimed at improving the quality of education in Hartford: a
measure enhancing early-childhood and preschool programs in urban
areas, and the state takeover of the Hartford system. ("Conn. Bill To Seize Hartford Schools
Passes," April 23, 1997.)

Will It Integrate?

Other lawmakers, however, offered more qualified support.

Although she approved the school choice plan, Democratic Rep. Edna
Garcia said the legislation lacks clear goals and deadlines.

Instead, at the prodding of a group of minority lawmakers, the
measure instructs the state board of education to assess disparities
among Connecticut's schools and recommend a five-year plan for reducing
them.

"All this requires the board to do is report to the legislature and
the governor on a plan," Mr. Brittain said.

Throughout the legislative process, those representing the
plaintiffs have complained that without more specific goals, proposed
remedies could expand school choice opportunities and give Hartford
more resources but still not integrate the schools.

"We've consistently said 'a quality, integrated education,'" said
Marianne Lado of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New
York City. "You can't trade one for the other."

Whether the plaintiffs lodge another legal challenge, most observers
agree Mr. Sheff could be well on his way toward graduating from his
next educational destination--Eastern Connecticut State University in
Willimantic--before the racial makeup of the Hartford schools changes
substantially.

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